Stanislaus County says developer is looking at 15,000-job Crows Landing business park
Stanislaus County officials have been in preliminary talks with a potential developer for the business park project at the former Crows Landing airfield.
The county came up empty with previous efforts to find a developer for the 1,528-acre Crows Landing Industrial Business Park but had better luck with a request for proposals in June.
Industrial Realty Group, a firm that specializes in reuse of industrial properties, expressed an interest and entered an exclusive negotiation window with the county, said Keith Boggs, a former assistant executive officer for the county.
The county received no other proposals and has promised to talk only with IRG as it does research on the Crows Landing plan, which could bring up to 15,000 jobs to western Stanislaus County.
The county expects a detailed proposal or an answer from IRG by the end of February, said Boggs, retired and working as a consultant for the county.
If the real estate company is committed to the reuse project, the county would negotiate an agreement for IRG to serve as the master developer. The county would look for another developer if IRG loses interest.
IRG, based in Los Angeles, is one of three partners working on redevelopment of the former McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento. The firm is reviewing the opportunities for developing the former Naval landing field south of Patterson.
For a number of years, a project called West Park was in the planning stages at Crows Landing before the county cut ties with developer Gerry Kamilos in 2012. A 4,800-acre plan overlapping the former base property, West Park was a proposed jobs mecca and multimodal transportation hub connected with the Port of Oakland.
After the demise of West Park, the county wasn’t able lure a developer for a scaled-down Crows Landing project in early 2013 and released its own plan for reuse of the airfield in 2014. County supervisors approved the environmental studies in 2018.
The county development plan calls for a 370-acre general aviation airport, light manufacturing, distribution warehouses, office space and aviation-related businesses.
Boggs said IRG could propose some changes to the Crows Landing project. But any proposals for reuse must stay within the 1,528-acre footprint, he said. An agreement with the federal government that deeded the property to the county requires that an airport be part of the reuse project.
IRG representatives did not return messages from The Modesto Bee on Friday.
Supervisor Terry Withrow said the talks with IRG are preliminary. “We are going forward with some (developer) whether it is this firm or somebody else,” Withrow said. “It’s just a matter of finding the right fit to get it started.”
Some unanswered questions have swirled around the Crows Landing project. Such as: Does the county need another public airport? Does it have a desire for more distribution centers? And what are the traffic and housing implications of employing 15,000 people at the center between Patterson and Newman.
Boggs said the success of distribution centers such as Amazon and Restoration Hardware a few miles away in Patterson indicates there should be demand for distribution warehouses at the Crows Landing industrial park. The site has access to an Interstate 5 freeway interchange about a mile away.
“We feel really good about where we are,” Boggs said.
